Chapter 890: Unloveable

Cassius felt his own heart constrict at the raw longing in her voice.

"From that day on." Ragnora continued. "I started noticing romance everywhere. It was as though someone had opened my eyes."

She held up one massive finger.

"For example, I saw the human couple from the settlement down the road who always held hands when they came to trade at the ogre market. Just holding hands—such a simple thing, but the way their fingers intertwined, the way she would squeeze his palm and he would squeeze back..."

She held up another finger.

"I saw the two ogres who fought in the training yard every evening. Everyone thought they were rivals, but if you watched closely, you could see it. They were holding back. Neither of them ever landed a blow that would truly hurt the other."

"And when the match was over, they'd walk away together, shoulders touching, and there was something in their eyes that wasn't rivalry at all."

A third finger.

"When I left the village, I saw even more."

"Human couples walking through market squares, the elderly ones who'd been together so long they moved in perfect synchrony...

"The young ones who blushed and stammered and couldn't quite meet each other's eyes..."

"The middle-aged ones who bickered about trivial things but always, always made up before sundown..."

"Beastkin couples who groomed each other's fur..."

"Even a dwarf couple I met once—they'd been married for seventy years, and the husband still brought his wife a fresh flower every single morning."

She lowered her hand, her expression wistful.

"Everywhere I went, I saw love. And the more I saw, the more I wanted it. The more I thought about how wonderful it would be to have someone who looked at me the way Agnar looked at Diami."

"Someone who would steal food from my plate just to feed it back to me."

"Someone who would fall asleep in my lap while I stroked their hair."

Cassius leaned back, a strange expression crossing his face.

"You know, that's actually rather surprising to hear."

Ragnora blinked. "What do you mean?"

"When I first arrived in this world—" He caught himself. "I mean, when I first started traveling, interacting with different communities, I noticed something. Romantic relationships in the circles, at least, seemed rather...transactional. Obligatory."

"Husbands and wives who barely tolerated each other, marriages arranged for convenience rather than genuine affection."

He frowned. "I assumed that was the norm. That love, real love, was the exception rather than the rule."

Ragnora's expression brightened with something like pride.

"That used to be true. Throughout most of the continent, actually. But things changed. And do you know why?"

Cassius had a suspicion, but he asked anyway.

"Why?"

"Because of Big Sis Florence."

Cassius went very still.

"Before Big Sis married the Patriarch of the Holyfield family." Ragnora explained. "This estate was like any other. Marriages were contracts. Love was a luxury few could afford, and fewer still believed in. But Big Sis..."

Her voice grew reverent.

"She believed. She truly, genuinely believed that love was not just a feeling but a force—something that could change lives, change communities, change the world itself."

She leaned forward, her golden eyes gleaming.

"She launched campaigns. Not military ones—campaigns of the heart. She traveled from town to town, village to village, giving speeches about the importance of love in marriage."

"She wrote pamphlets. She published books. She held gatherings where couples would share their stories, their struggles, their triumphs."

"She argued passionately that a happy marriage was the foundation of a happy society. That children raised in loving homes would grow up to be better people."

"That love was not weakness but strength!"

Cassius listened in silence, his expression unreadable.

"At first, people were skeptical. She was asking them to change traditions that had existed for centuries. But she was persuasive. And more than that, she was genuine. Everyone could see that she truly believed what she was saying."

"She wasn't trying to manipulate anyone or gain anything. She simply...wanted people to be happy."

"And it worked?"

"It worked beyond anyone's expectations!"

Ragnora spread her hands in giddiness.

"The Holyfield estate you see today, where loving couples are common rather than rare that's her legacy!"

"Her influence has spread far beyond these borders, too. There are provinces that never even met her, but her ideas reached them through travelers who heard her speak and carried her words with them."

Cassius felt a strange warmth bloom in his chest. His mother. The woman he'd never truly known.

Every time he learned something new about her, she only grew more remarkable in his eyes.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your story, Commander."

Cassius said softly, inclining his head.

"Please...continue."

Ragnora turned back to him, her expression softening once more.

"As I was saying...seeing all those examples of romance around me made my world so much brighter and more colorful than it had ever been. But..." She stopped, her lower lip trembling slightly as she bit down on it.

"Even though I told myself I was fine..." Ragnora admitted in a low, brittle whisper. "Deep down...I was terribly lonely. I didn't have a family anymore. I didn't have a permanent home."

"I was an orphan, wandering from place to place, watching everyone else belong to someone while I belonged to no one."

Looking at this colossal warrior shrinking into herself, holding back years of quiet grief, Cassius's chest tightened painfully.

A sudden, powerful instinct surged inside him—he wanted nothing more than to reach out, wrap his arms around her massive frame, pull her close, and gently pat her soft, muscular thighs to comfort her.

He had to exert every ounce of his formidable willpower to keep his hands still on the table, knowing that overstepping now might make her retreat behind her armor.

Ragnora took a deep, shuddering breath, shaking off the dark cloud with a soft, self-deprecating scoff.

"Ah, listen to me getting all pitiful...But you see, that realization was what made me seek out a different outlet. A way to feel like I was a part of that warmth, even if only in my imagination.

"The books." Cassius said.

"The books." Ragnora nodded. "I learned to read romance novels from Madam Verna."

"Madam Verna?" Cassius wasn't expecting her to be the beginning of the addiction.

"Yep! Madam Verna was an extraordinarily eccentric woman. She was wealthy, highly respected, and held a dignified position in high society, yet her private quarters were an absolute disaster zone filled with hundreds of trashy, melodramatic romance paperbacks!"

Cassius couldn't help but chuckle.

"A high-society slaver lord with a secret addiction to sensationalist romance...that certainly fits the description of eccentric."

"Right?!" Ragnora giggled, her golden eyes sparkling. "She had multiple massive bookshelves packed to the brim with them! Whenever I finished my daily labor quota early, she would give me a warm cup of tea, hand me a book from her personal collection, and let me sit in her garden to read."

"And through those pages...oh, Cassius...I was transported to whole new worlds!"

She threw her hands out slightly, her voice rising with poetic excitement.

"I read about noble ladies falling in love with rogue knights, about tragic star-crossed lovers defying ancient curses, about grand declarations under moonlight!"

"Through reading, I experienced every single emotion I had ever dreamed of feeling. It became my sanctuary. A catalyst for everything I yearned for."

Her gaze softened further, her tone dropping into a warm, gentle purr.

"And then...I met Big Sis. When she freed me and brought me home, I discovered that she was just as passionately obsessed with romance novels as I was!"

"We would sit up until the early hours of the morning debating characters, crying over tragic character deaths, and swooning over romantic grand gestures. Through her, my love for the genre blossomed into what you see today!"

Cassius looked at the secret boomshelve, then back at Ragnora.

'I...guess that makes sense.'

Beneath the mountain of dense muscles and terrifying Titan bloodline, Ragnora was simply a girl.

A girl who, just like anyone else in any world, possessed a tender heart that craved warmth, affection, and love.

The realization didn't make her seem weak; it made her extraordinarily, breathtakingly human...or ogre...or titan.

Cassius held her gaze for a long moment. Then, slowly, he leaned forward.

"Commander—"

"Ah...you can just call me Ragnora, Cassius. We've talked this much...'Commander' feels a bit too formal."

"Ragnora..."

He said, and the sound of her name made something flutter in her chest.

"I understand why you love romance. I understand why you've immersed yourself in love stories for your entire life. But there's something I don't understand."

"And what's that?"

He fixed her with those piercing blue eyes.

"Why haven't you experienced it yourself? You clearly want a relationship. You've wanted one your entire life. So Why haven't you found a partner?"

It was the most obvious query in the world to Cassius. To him, a woman as majestic, powerful, and deeply compassionate as Ragnora should have been pursued by countless suitors.

Ragnora on the other hand was completely taken aback. She stared at him, her mouth slightly open, thoroughly checking his face to see if he was pulling a cruel joke.

But as her eyes searched his features, she found no trace of mockery—only a raw, intense, and genuinely confused seriousness.

A wry, bitter smile touched her lips.

"Cassius...is it really not blindingly obvious to you why I don't have a partner?"

"No. It's not obvious at all."

She searched his face once again for any sign that he was joking.

But his expression was perfectly serious, his brow furrowed with genuine confusion.

She honestly didn't want to say this—it felt too self-pitying, too vulnerable. But Cassius's genuinely confused expression left her no choice.

"Fine." She said, her voice tinged with resignation. "Let me ask you something. Describe Isabelle for me. Her appearance. If you were telling a stranger what she looks like, what would you say?"

Cassius didn't hesitate.

"Beautiful. Stunning. She has the most remarkable blue eyes like glaciers catching the morning light."

"A smile that makes my heart forget how to beat properly..."

"Silky blonde hair that I could spend hours running my fingers through..."

He was warming to his subject now.

"She's also voluptuous in all the right ways. Soft curves. Plump thighs that—"

"That's enough." Ragnora interrupted, a flush creeping across her crimson cheeks. "I believe I have the picture."

"—that could probably crack a walnut if she squeezed them together—"

"Cassius!"

"Right. Sorry." He cleared his throat. "I got carried away."

"You were describing." Ragnora said slowly. "What most men would consider the ideal woman. Beautiful. Soft. Petite or at least normally proportioned. Feminine in the traditional sense."

"I suppose so."

"Now." She spread her arms wide. "Look at me. Do I resemble any of what you just described?"

Cassius opened his mouth—

"No." Ragnora answered for him. "I don't. I am the exact opposite of what you described."

She rose from her chair, her full height making the room suddenly feel smaller.

"I am not soft. I am not petie. I tower over male ogres, let alone humans like a mountain among hills."

She flexed her arm, the corded muscle bulging beneath her crimson skin.

"Where Isabelle has softness, I have this. Muscles thick enough to stop a charging mana beast. Arms that can tear an S-class monster in half."

She let out a humorless laugh. "I am built for war, Cassius. Not for love."

She sank back into her chair with a heavy sigh.

"And my skin..." She ran her fingers along her forearm. "It's not smooth and unblemished like Isabel's. It's crimson. Crimson like blood, like fire, and something demonic. And it's covered in scars."

She tilted her head, exposing the faded marks along neck.

"Look at these—reminders of every battle I've fought, every monster I've slain, every blade that's found its mark."

Cassius looked at her scars. His heart clenched—not with disgust, but with something far different.

"Even my face." Ragnora continued, seemingly unable to stop now that she'd begun. "Scars across my eye. Along my chin. Small ones, yes, but they're there. Permanent. And it's not just the scars—it's the structure. Too sharp here, too broad there. Not soft. Not pretty. Not..."

She trailed off, her voice growing very small.

"Not what anyone would want."